Posted on 04/07/2010 4:44:21 PM PDT by LouAvul
Glacier National Park has lost two more of its namesake moving icefields to climate change, which is shrinking the rivers of ice until they grind to a halt, a government researcher said Wednesday. Warmer temperatures have reduced the number of named glaciers in the northwestern Montana park to 25, said Dan Fagre said, an ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey. He warned many of the rest of the glaciers may be gone by the end of the decade. "It's continual," Fagre said. "When we're measuring glacier margins, by the time we go home the glacier is already smaller than what we've measured."
The meltoff shows the climate is changing, but does not show exactly what is causing temperatures to go up, Fagre said.
The park's glaciers have been slowly melting away since about 1850, when the centuries-long Little Ice Age ended. They once numbered as many as 150, and 37 of those glaciers eventually were named.
A glacier needs to be 25 acres to qualify for the title.
If it shrinks any smaller, it does not always stop moving right away. A smaller mass of ice on a steep slope would still continue to grind its way through the Rocky Mountains.
Glacier melting has accelerated in recent decades as global temperatures have increased. Over the past century, Glacier National Park's mean summer temperature has risen by about 3 degrees Fahrenheit.
What “Climate change” ended the ice age and melted 2 miles of ice across North America. Damn those Libs are stupid.
we’re doomed. you’re a denier. /s
Who has that “huge manatee” graphic?
Just joking.... :)
Oh cry me a river!
PS. I love this park.
Was it called Glacier National Park 10,000 years ago?
Damn those 1848 Buick Regals! LOL
I knew it. We should have stopped all those 1910 SUV's back when we had a chance.
.
Dooooooooommedddd
“I didnt think that penguins and polar bears would mix theyre on opposite poles.”
Well, if we bring back global cooling (get a leisure suit and over the ears hair and a long moustache), maybe it’ll ice up all the way and the Polar bears can walk all the way to Antarctica and get them some penguins.
And when that happens, we can get all nostalgic about global warming. We can all sit around and tell jokes about the earnest white guys with dreadlocks, baggy pants, che t’s, and girlfriend’s with hair on their legs. Oh, wait, we already tell jokes about them.
Well that same national park was cover with a couple of miles thick ice about 13,000 years ago...
That “warming trend” that has melted the vast majority of it has been going on for at least the last 10,000 years...
And I should be concerned why?
“In 10,000 more years, it will be different again. “
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!! Something must be done!
summers comin
gonna make some iced tea
Nah, we needed the ice for that last party. It was a BIG keg.
Well, there once was a glacier right where my house is now. I don’t miss that one, either.
So what? There’s plenty more out there!
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